SUBURBAN COTTAGE GARDEN

Seven years ago, Julie (pictured opposite) and Andrew Stafford sacrificed some of their back garden for an in-ground pool. Before construction began, Julie moved her rarer plants to a place she thought would be safe from the diggers.

When the builders dumped bluestones on top of her special plants, Julie cried. She thought her garden would never be the same again — but she was wrong!

Somehow, on a typical block in the Melbourne suburb of Ivanhoe East, she has found room for herbs and vegies among her exotics and ornamentals. She grows perennial spinach and parsley in her flowerbeds, and tubs of different